Orlando chooses big man Kyle O'Quinn 49th overall

Andrew Nicholson didn’t start playing organized basketball until his junior year in high school.

Now he’s a first-round NBA draft pick — and the first pick of Rob Hennigan’s tenure as the Orlando Magic’s general manager.

The Magic selected the 6-foot-9 St. Bonaventurepower forward with the 19th overall pick Thursday night. During his senior year of college, Nicholson led the Bonnies to the NCAA Tournament, won Atlantic 10 Player of the Year honors and averaged 18.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

“They like my versatility,” Nicholson said. “They like my length. They like my size. They think I’m a good character guy. I’m just ready to come in and contribute to the team, and I’m very excited. I’m beyond elated right now. It’s like a dream come true.”

The Ontario native and collegiate physics major brings an advanced back-to-the-basket game. He also made 43 percent of his 3-point attempts as a senior.

“He’s a great human being,” Hennigan said. “He’s smart. He processes the game in a cerebral way, and I think that he’s someone who loves the game. He’s someone who is relatively new to the game yet has a sophisticated, efficient way in which he scores the ball.”

With the 49th pick, the Magic chose 6-foot-10 big man Kyle O’Quinn, who averaged 15.9 points and 10.3 rebounds as a senior at Norfolk State.

O’Quinn burst onto the national stage when he scored 26 points and collected 14 rebounds to lead the 15th-seeded Spartans to a win over second-seeded Missouri in the NCAA Tournament.

Like Nicholson, O’Quinn started playing organized basketball as a high-school junior. O’Quinn also played four seasons of college basketball, just like Nicholson.

“I can’t explain how grateful I am for this,” O’Quinn said Thursday night.

As excited as Nicholson and O’Quinn were to be drafted, their selections felt a bit anticlimactic.

As the draft approached, speculation swirled that the Houston Rockets were attempting to acquire at least one lottery pick to produce a blockbuster trade offer for Dwight Howard.

A trade never materialized.

“We had talks with a lot of different teams,” Hennigan told reporters. “As I said the other day, I’m going to keep a lot of that stuff confidential for the time being. I know you guys are probably getting sick of me saying that. But we’ve had talks with a handful of teams about a handful of subjects and a handful of topics. It’s just part of the draft process.”

Hennigan felt some butterflies before the draft. On Thursday morning, he spoke to his wife, Marissa, and told her he was wearing his “wedding tie” for luck.

According to Hennigan, the Magic got some luck when Nicholson was available at No. 19 and O’Quinn was available at No. 49.

It’s unclear how Nicholson fits into the Magic’s plans.

Right now, the only other power forwards under contract for the Magic for 2012-13 are Glen Davis and Justin Harper.

On Thursday, the Magic made an expected procedural move when they submitted a qualifying offer to power forward Ryan Anderson. The gesture ensures that the Magic will have the right to match any offer sheet Anderson signs with another team as a restricted free agent.

Earl Clark, who also plays power forward, on Thursday notified Magic officials that he will decline his player option for the 2012-13 season. He will become an unrestricted free agent.

As Clark finalized his decision, Magic co-captain and starting point guard Jameer Nelson still pondered his choice. Nelson has until 11:59 tonight to decide whether he’ll exercise his player option. If he declines the option, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent.

“He is a tremendous scorer,” Schmidt said. “He’s got tremendous footwork inside. He can step out and shoot the 3. He can score one-on-one against anybody. In my opinion, the last 15 games of the year, no one was playing better in the country.”

On Thursday night, Nicholson watched the draft in downtown Toronto with family and close friends.

“I plan on playing in the league as long as I can, because this has been my dream ever since I started playing basketball,” he said. “This has been my main goal.”